Copa Quiksilver: 4th date of the National Surfing Circuit, Dominical

This weekend we all packed up and headed to Dominical for the 4th event of this years Costa Rican surf circuit. The forecast had predicted big waves, and that is defiantly what we got! The conditions were really tricky, with big closeout sets and really strong currents. The heats felt more like trying to survive than trying to win haha. I have never paddled so hard for so long in my life throughout heats; after 15 minutes I was destroyed! In my first heat we actually got dragged down so far by the current when we were paddling out that we had to get out and run back down the beach to where the contest area was and start again – gnarly! I made a note to myself at that point that I need to start running training – it was SO HARD! The semi final was probably the hardest heat of all. The tide was pretty low and the waves were breaking really heavily, I was nervous just to paddle out let alone be thinking about the contest haha. There was a lot of mental preparation involved thats for sure. When the conditions are like that, you can’t let fear get in because thats when mistakes start happening. You need to prepare yourself and be ready for anything. I tell myself, You are brave, You are confident, You are strong, and I put on the most crazy surf tune ever as loud as I can in my ears and run out there with everything that I’ve got! In that heat I was actually the only girl to make it out back and catch some of the bigger waves – so that made me feel good. Everything is in the mental preparation (and the breathing haha)!
It was a great weekend, and the vibes throughout the contest were really awesome and Dominical was a super fun place to hang out. I ended up taking 2nd place, which is a great result for me and keeps me up there high in the ranking. I’m super stoked! I want to say thank you to everyone who was there – all of the surfers, the staff, the federation and the people that came to watch. Having such a great crowd and good people around made the whole experience such a pleasure and so enjoyable. I would also like to thank my sponsors Calavera Swimwear, A3 Energy, Manual, and Decarbonated Sports for all the support this year and helping me get to where I am. Congratulations to Nataly Bernold who took first place, she is such an inspiration and an outstanding surfer. Also big up to ALL of the groms who surfed the contest, the conditions were extremely hard but they still went out there and teared it up with no fear – really really impressive, nice work!
There are three more events in this circuit now, so I will be training hard and looking to get more good results. Thanks to everyone for all of the support and kind comments!